Lost Paradise
Page 28
“We have lived and loved together, through many changing years.
We have shared each other’s gladness, and wept each other’s tears,
I have never known a sorrow that was long unsoothed by thee,
For thy smiles can make a summer where darkness else would be—”
“Jefferies, right?” I interrupted, glancing at him.
Danial stopped and looked over at me. “You know this?” he said innocently.
It was a plot; a brotherly plot, no less. “Danial, if you want him here, say so.”
“Only if you want him here, Sar,” Danial said neutrally. “I told you I would not make you see him unless you wanted to.” He looked at me out of the corner of his eye.
“Tell him he can come if he wants to,” I said, letting out a sigh. “He has a right to be here. Any day now, it’s going to happen. He should be here when it does.”
Danial beamed, then got up immediately and left. I turned onto my side, away from the door, groaning as I shifted my weight.
Minutes later, the door opened. I breathed in Devlin’s scent, that scent that was better than all other scents almost, the scent of myrtlewood trees. He lay down next to me, behind me, but didn’t speak. While I was debating how to open a conversation with him, I drifted back to sleep.
I awoke with a gasp, feeling sharp pains across my stomach. This was it. “Dev!” I gasped, another contraction hitting me. “Dev, wake up!”
Devlin woke up immediately, his sleepy expression changing to excitement and panic. “Is it time?”
Another contraction hit me, making me groan. Why were they so close together already? “Yes! Get me to the doctor.”
Devlin picked me up carefully. “Your water has broken. Lie still.” He got me to the door, shouting, “Danial! Theo! It’s time! Get down here!”
Suddenly, everyone was there. Terian and Titus got Devlin and I to Dr. Camlyn’s office in record time. As they carried me inside, I saw Lash was there, too, talking to Devlin. He was dressed in black armor. As I was carried into the delivery room, my last view was of Lash shutting the doors behind us, a wicked looking automatic rifle with a scope in his arms as strode away.
“Get me some drugs,” I hissed.
“Stephen’s coming,” Devlin assured me. “Lash and Titus are outside on guard. Just relax.”
“I’ll relax when I get some drugs,” I replied grumpily.
By the time Stephen arrived a half hour later, I was screaming, crying, and swearing, the sweat pouring off me. Then Stephen administered the anesthesia, coupled with a magical sleeping spell, and I dropped right into a blissful sleep.
* * * *
When I woke up, it was over.
Theo was holding a tiny cougar cub in his arms, feeding him from a bottle. The cub was squeaking a little, and lashing his tail, his eyes closed. Theo looked every inch the proud father.
Devlin was also cooing over his child, Danial right next to him. I wanted to ask if the baby girl had his eyes or mine, but then I remembered it was probably too soon to tell.
Stephen came over. “How do you feel?”
“Tired but good,” I said, managing a smile. “Did it all go okay?”
“Yes,” Stephen whispered, nodding. “Everything went fine. And I tied your tubes, also. You won’t get pregnant again.”
I breathed a sigh of relief, then fell back asleep.
* * * *
When I awoke again, I was back at Danial’s house, lying in his bedroom. Theo was beside me, our child sleeping in his arms.
“What do you want to call him, Sar?” Theo said softly. “Your time for picking a name is up.”
“Devon,” I said hesitantly. “Would you mind if we called him Devon?”
Theo looked at me, curiously.
“It was my father’s middle name,” I said with emotion. “He didn’t like his first name, so he went by his middle name.”
“Of course,” Theo said, relaxing. “Devon is a great name. We’ll call him Dev, for short.”
“No,” I said firmly. “We’ll call him Devon.”
* * * *
In a few days, when I felt well enough, Terian took me to Hayden. “Titus said he would bring you back,” Terian said with a smile. “I’ve got to go and meet Theo.”
I nodded, though inside I was grumpy. I needed people to transport me now. As predicted, I had lost the power to teleport when the vampire virus within me had spiked. Worse, the virus would increase, according to Stephen, so my power wasn’t going to return anytime soon. It sucked, big time. I’d almost forgotten how to drive, and now it took hours to get anywhere. But I held onto the hope that soon I’d have it back when the virus eventually declined.
Serena was there to meet me. “She’s beautiful, Sar,” she said, hugging me. “She looks like you.”
Hesitantly, I walked upstairs to the nursery, but found it empty. So I went to Dev’s room next.
He’d put the baby’s crib in his bedroom. I thought about remarking something about that cramping his style, but thought it too rude, even for me. Especially as he was there feeding her, looking as enthralled and loving as I’d ever seen him.
“What are we going to call her?” I said finally.
“Come in, please, Love,” he said softly. “Come see our child.”
I went over hesitantly, and looked down at the little girl with her wisps of light golden hair. Her eyes were closed. “She’s lovely, Dev.”
“I’m…um, we’re going to call her Venus,” Devlin said happily. “If that’s okay with you.”
He had to be kidding, right? “You are not naming our child after a Bananarama song,” I said, putting my hands on my hips. “Pick something else.”
Devlin rolled his eyes. “I would call her Aphrodite,” he said, “But everyone uses nicknames around here. I don’t want her going by Fro, or Aphro.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, that would be bad.”
Devlin gave me a tentative smile. “It’s after the Greek Goddess of Love, not the song. Though I imagine she’ll like the song, when she hears it.”
“Why not Athena, then?” I asked. “She’s bound to be feisty—”
“Because I’ve had enough of war,” he said, his molten gold eyes staring meaningfully into mine.
I held his eyes for a second, and then looked back down at our baby. “We’ll call her Venus, then. She’s certainly beautiful enough.”
“She is,” Devlin whispered, stroking Venus’s tiny face. “She is going to look like you, Sar. She has your hair.” He put her down on her back in the crib.
“It’s not my hair,” I said, trying to smile. “It’s yours, Dev. Mine is highlighted to be this color. Yours is naturally lighter.”
“Sar, I’ve seen pictures of you when you were little,” Devlin said happily. “Your hair was this light then. It got darker as you aged—”
“Who showed you pictures of me when I was little?” I said in alarm. “When?”
“That night I stayed to watch you for Theo, more than a year ago now. When you went to bed, I was bored, so I looked through your bookshelves. Although one shelf was interesting—”
I blushed, knowing what shelf he meant. My softcore romantic porn shelf.
“—I didn’t see anything worth reading. But your photo albums were there, and your baby book. I looked through them, to find out more about you.”
I was horribly embarrassed. He’d seen my most embarrassing photo, that picture where I’d put my pants on my head when I was six and was pretending I had long hair. I’d been raised like a boy in my youth, and my hair had always been cut in a pageboy style. So I’d used pants. I flushed deep red and redder, thinking of the many embarrassing pictures he had to have seen. I’d thought no one would find them there on the bottom shelf. Worse, Devlin seemed to remember every single one.
“You were so cute, Sar. Dressing up your tricycle with jewelry, and your girl dolls with their horses, swords, and shields, and the strange costumes you dressed up in.”
I got more e
ven red, if that was possible.
“I think you were trying to be a belly dancer, maybe?”
“I was trying to be an Amazon. And you were not supposed to ever find out about that,” I said, biting my lip. “No one was supposed to see those pictures, ever.”
“You are embarrassed?” he said curiously. “Why?”
Duh. “I’d had pants on my head. It’s kind of self-explanatory.”
“You should not be embarrassed,” he said lovingly, coming closer. “I loved seeing the woman you are taking shape in the little girl you once were—”
He was making his move. “I’m going to head out,” I said, backing toward the door. “But thank you for letting me visit with her—”
“Sar, wait, I—”
Go now. “Have a good day, Dev,” I said quickly. “Please take care of her. I’ll be back in a few days.” I got out and shut the door quickly, then hurried downstairs.
To my relief, Devlin didn’t follow. But Serena wasn’t there and neither was Titus. Deciding the safest place to wait was down in Titus’s lab, I went to the basement and got into one of the big leather chairs, pulling a heavy blanket over me.
It was quiet down there. For a while I thought about Devlin, and then about Danial. Just as I was dozing off, I felt a hand on my arm.
“Sar?”
I opened my eyes. Lash was beside my chair, his hand on my arm.
“It’s good to see you,” he hissed.
It was hard for me to meet his eyes. Seeing him brought back all the embarrassing things that he and I had gone through during The Lust, plus the bad experiences with Dev’s men. I wanted to forget who I’d been with him, like I had when I had fallen out of love with my first boyfriend in high school. Months after we’d broken up, I’d seen him one day in the hallway and I’d wondered what the hell I’d been thinking. That I’d been the one to pursue him so desperately just made it worse. I felt the same way now about Lash; uncomfortable and ill at ease.
“Venus is beautiful,” Lash hissed gently. If his voice could have affection in it, it had it now. “She looks like both you and Dev. She has his eyes.”
While I thought she looked more like me, I was happy to hear that Venus had gotten her father’s golden eyes. “I hoped she’d get his eyes,” I said, trying to smile.
Lash squeezed my arm a little. “Would you be interested in some sushi?”
I shifted in my seat. “Um…no, not just—”
“Sorry,” Lash hissed immediately, withdrawing his hand. “I won’t touch you again.”
Guilt flooded me. Lash hadn’t been in the grip of anything; his desire for me had been powerful and real. It hadn’t ebbed, as mine had. “I’m sorry, Lash,” I said, biting my lip. “I used you—”
“Stop,” Lash hissed sternly, some of his old nastiness back in his tone. “We both got what we wanted out of the time we spent together. It’s over now, and that’s that.” He stood up abruptly, and turned to go.
“Lash,” I said hesitantly. “Do you want me to talk to Titus, see if he can’t take my blood—”
“No,” Lash hissed in a low, low voice that somehow was worse than if he had shouted the word. “Keep your blood. I shouldn’t have taken what I did from you.”
“I don’t want you to be in pain—”
Lash turned in a split second, and leaned over me menacingly, his hands on the arms of the chair, his face inches from mine. I shrank back into the seat. “Shut your mouth, Sar,” he hissed in that same scary low voice, his words venomous. “You don’t talk about that, not to anyone, remember?”
“I remember,” I squeaked.
“Good,” he hissed. Then he turned and left, without a backward look.
I sat there for a moment, trembling, and then Titus came in. “Everything okay?” he rumbled in his bass voice.
Everything was not okay. But there was no way to fix it. It was just as well Dev and I were done; now that he had what he wanted from me, he would forget me. There was no going back for a do-over to make Lash into a different man than he was, someone I could have called friend. There was only going forward, away from Hayden and the paradise I’d hoped to find here. I’d make a new life with Danial and Theo. With time, remembering the dreams I’d had would sting less. That would have to be enough of a plan. The rest I’d figure out on the way.
“I just had a bad dream,” I whispered. “But it’s over now. Take me home, please.”
About the Author
Tara Fox Hall’s writing credits include nonfiction, horror, suspense, action-adventure, erotica, and contemporary and historical paranormal romance. She is the author of the paranormal action-adventure Lash series and the vampire romantic suspense Promise Me series. Tara divides her free time unequally between writing novels and short stories, chainsawing firewood, caring for stray animals, sewing cat and dog beds for donation to animal shelters, and target practice.
Other works by the author with Melange Books, LLC
Return To Me
Surrender to Me
The Origin of Fear in Spellbound 2011 Anthology
Night Music in Midnight Thirsts II Anthology
Partners in Midnight Thirsts II Anthology
Kink in Wicked Christmas Wishes Anthology
The Oath in Wicked Christmas Wishes Anthology
Bedtime Shadows Anthology
Make Me Behave Anthology
Latham’s Landing, An Anthology
The Promise Me Series
1. Promise Me
2. Broken Promise
3. Taken in the Night
4. Taken for his Own
4.5. Promise Me Anthology
5. Immortal Confessions
6. Her Secret
7. Point of No Return
8. Lost Paradise
Coming Soon
Dark Solace, Book 9 of the Promise Me Series
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